A.M. Roundup: Still sparring over casino sites

Good morning! It will be cold and cloudy today ahead of a major snow storm that will hit Friday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City with no announced public schedule. Environmental Facilities Corporation President Matt Driscoll will Cuomovangelize in Glens Falls, and SUNY’s trustees will meet. There will be a conference call with business leaders who support the minimum wage. Here are this morning’s headlines…

Wenonah Hauter: Despite this massive show of public opposition, Gov. Cuomo is still trying to figure out how to get away with fracking New York. Shockingly, an administration so famous for its sharp political acumen somehow thinks it can thread the needle and allow fracking without infuriating the progressive base it needs for its future. The administration has already floated numerous compromise plans, from declaring that certain urban watersheds will be off limits to drilling, to the “sacrifice zone” plan that would limit fracking to five Southern Tier counties. But notwithstanding this political maneuvering, common sense dictates that the devastating consequences of fracking won’t confine themselves to county lines or underground watershed boundaries. The latest polls show that a majority of New Yorkers now see the obvious: that there is no such thing as safe fracking. (HuffPo)

The Times Union: What’s Steve McLaughlin’s problem? How did a state assemblyman so quickly deteriorate from a promising and engaging legislator into such an embarrassment?//Part of his decline, certainly, is an inability to come to terms with the need for tougher gun laws. But that alone isn’t it. Mr. McLaughlin, a Republican from the Rensselaer County hamlet of Melrose, has plenty of company on that point. What Mr. McLaughlin lost along the way is civility. (TU)

Behold: Common Sense Principle named its donor … read Comptroller DiNapoli’s report about Gloversville … Ruben Diaz considers Jenny Rivera to be “Puerto Rican” … and Cuomo said his relations with Republicans are better than in previous years.